It’s an ancient history now, but a short while ago Katie Zachariah was President Trump’s press secretary (for a short while—five days, to be exact).
She lost her job for two reasons: (1) the only press conference she held didn’t go so well; and (2) she said misleading things about her legal qualifications.
And it is those misleading remarks that make an interesting verbal point.
Legal practitioners in Australia (and Britain) are divided into two groups—solicitors and barristers.
The barristers have been ‘admitted to the bar’ and can stand up in court to litigate cases, while solicitors do all legal work except litigation.
In America, however that neat verbal distinction doesn’t exist.
Instead, in the US there is a careful distinction between ‘lawyers’ and ‘attorneys.’
The language journalist William Safie wrote about this some years ago in his column ‘On Language’ in The New York Times.
He was bombarded with letters from legal types quibbling over details, but as I understand it—anyone who graduates from college in the States with a law degree can call themselves a ‘lawyer.’
And in those terms Katie Zachariah was a ‘lawyer.’
However, such people are not allowed to plead in court.
To do that they must sit (and pass) the bar exam.
(Katie Zachariah failed her bar exam in California.)
Successfully doing so means they are licenced by the state and can call themselves an ‘attorney-at-law’—where the word ‘attorney’ means someone who is entitled to act as the legal representative of someone else.
Zachariah (it seems) had sometimes called herself an ‘attorney’ when she was only a ‘lawyer.’
That was her offence.
If it seems very picky to you, the distinction matters under American law—and helped to bring Zachariah undone.
For Perth readers, today I will talk words and language with Tod Johnston on 'The Long Lunch' -- at about 12:20pm.
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